ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Two Letters to the Pugwash: Sakharov’s Critique of Soviet Science Diplomacy

• In Event: New Perspectives on the History of Science Diplomacy 1

English Abstract

This paper examines the ambivalent position of the Pugwash movement within the Soviet bloc through a close reading of Andrei Sakharov’s two letters to the Pugwash Conferences, written in 1975 and 1982. These documents, composed at a time when Sakharov was increasingly marginalized and persecuted, offer a unique internal critique of both Soviet science diplomacy and the structural limitations of Pugwash’s East–West dialogue. The 1982 letter in particular — never delivered to the anniversary meeting in Canada and reaching the West only months later — articulates Sakharov’s fundamental concern that Soviet delegates acted in Pugwash meetings not as independent scientists but as “well-disciplined functionaries of one gigantic bureaucratic machine,” thereby diminishing the value of the forum for addressing global security issues. His analysis connects the erosion of détente, the expansion of Soviet military power, the invasion of Afghanistan, repression in Poland, and the persistent closure of Soviet society with the inability of Pugwash to confront authoritarian misuse of science on equal terms.
By situating these letters within the broader history of “restricted internationalism” in the socialist bloc, the paper argues that Sakharov’s interventions represent a rare form of epistemic and moral dissent inside Pugwash that was itself constrained by geopolitical asymmetries. His appeals to apply equal standards to both superpowers, to defend human rights, and to protect persecuted scientists reveal a vision of scientific responsibility that challenged both Soviet state control and the political naïveté of some Western peace movements. Drawing on archival materials, the paper shows how Sakharov’s Pugwash letters expose fundamental tensions between official socialist science diplomacy and dissident transnational communication, and how they illuminate the limits of informal scientific dialogue under conditions of authoritarianism and global confrontation.

Author

• Doubravka Olsakova, Charles University, Prague